01-15-07, Alpental > Hyak

Escaped the icy streets of Seattle and the slushy mess of I-90, only to wait until after 9:30 for Armstrong to open. Two fun laps on 10 inches of light blower on top of a nice rain crust (heard from someone in line that the heavy rain turned to snow around 4 PM yesterday), easy to not bottom out if you stayed light on your feet. Chair 2 opened around 10:40, long lines. Nash got crushed right off the bat, with some very inconsistent snow down low. Light fluff in the Shot 6 region (as long as you avoided all the avy debris from the morning's bombing). Frustrated with the huge lines at Chair 2 (on a Tuesday, really?) we moved over to Hyak for a really fun lap on 6-8 new on top of a smooth crust, easily the best run of the day. Does anyone know why Alpental can almost never get Chair 2 open on time? Do they not start bombing until 9? Seriously, I lived in Jackson for 5 years and they averaged 1-2 late openings a year, and those were EXCEPTIONAL snow days. It's getting very frustrating going to Alpental only to stand and wait, and wait, and wait.....

Part of the secret to alpental, is to go there when it should not be good and it is, or just by chance chat with the patrol and have them ask you to check the bc with them, metro skiing has many hidden perks, it might take a few years to get the feel for it. I had to work today but I'm still parched from past adventures. Good luck

I live in Hyak and can hear the charges at the house when they start tossing them. This morning seemed a little later then usual, around 6:45 ~ 7ish...

Others that have lived and skied in other areas as locals have made similar comments before. Everyone assumes that because Alpental is a small area that it should be easy to open and that it's a patrol problem.

I can't comment directly as to why the chair didn't open today until 10:40, they have gotten it open quicker in the past three weeks with more snow. Could be the winds that also came with this storm as it blew close to 40 on average for several hours last night. Wind transport tends to slow things down during control work. They did open Snake Dance pretty quick however followed by Elevator.

Thanks for the advice, and please know that I am not disparaging Alpental in any way, I understand how difficult of a Mountain it is to control, despite it's small size. Lets hope for many more days where patrol has their hands full.

Thanks for the advice, and please know that I am not disparaging Alpental in any way, I understand how difficult of a Mountain it is to control, despite it's small size.  Lets hope for many more days where patrol has their hands full. 

I hear that...
Looking forward to getting out to the cleaver.